thumb|270px|[[Mecca, the holiest city in Islam]] Islam (Arabic: الإسلام al-’islām, ) is a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. The word Islam is a homograph having multiple meanings and a triliteral of the word salam, which directly translates as peace. Other meanings include submission, or the total surrender of oneself to God (Arabic: الله, Allāh) (see Islam (term)). An adherent of Islam is known as a Muslim, meaning "one who submits [to God]". The word Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islām is the infinitive. There are approximately 1.8 billion Muslims, making Islam the second-largest religion in the world, after Christianity. Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad, God's final prophet, through the angel Gabriel, and regard the Qur'an and the Sunnah (words and deeds of Muhammad) as the fundamental sources of Islam. They do not regard Muhammad as the founder of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original monotheistic faith of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. Islamic tradition holds that Jews and Christians distorted the revelations God gave to these prophets by either altering the text, introducing a false interpretation, or both. (via Wikipedia)